A Cute Feel Good Story

Photo: AMPA

Well how's this for cute?  A a two month old baby Amazonian manatee that was rescued by AMPA, a Brazilian organisation dedicated to saving orphaned manatees. The baby manatee was found by fishermen beside its dead mother. They contacted AMPA and so this gorgeous little fellows life was saved.

I remember when I was on holiday in Florida a few years ago we went on a tour of the waterways in the south west of the state close to Everglades City (a grand title for a small town) we briefly saw a manatee.  It silently came up out of the water, looked at us and then with a gracefulness than defied its size, dived back down into the water it's large flat tale flapping on the water before it disappeared. A few seconds, but I was thrilled to see this shy creature at all. Special animals, and it is good that this little manatee has been saved. You can read more about it here.

Bono and Edge Singing at Club 55

Bono and Edge and their families are enjoying their usual summer break slumming it in the beautiful South of France (lucky things!) One of the places they have been spotted at is the Club 55 in St Tropez where they had an impromptu singalong of Help with the resident band. Someone managed to record a 30 second video which has made its way to YouTube, you can watch it below.

And because I just know you want to see those yellow trousers he's wearing in the video in all their canary glory here's a full length photo of the B-man sporting his latest fashion ..... his dress sense hasn't improved with age LOL!

Goodbye Olympics

Closing Ceremony of London 2012 Olympics

Well the Olympic Games in London are over, finishing with a grand, but slightly mad spectacle that summed up the UK pretty well - though the musical content could have been better. Loved the lighting effects and I think London was right not to try to emulate what Beijing did four years ago in its opening and closing ceremonies.  Instead it was something different, at times whacky, sometimes cheesy, funny, moving, amazing. For me the best bit was the Queen and James Bond, I can't believe they got her to do that LOL!

I'm not into sport much but I did watch a bit of the Olympics and enjoyed it. We did well in winning medals too which added to the general feel-good factor the Games gave the country. It has lit up an otherwise wet and miserable summer that has seen us unable to do many of the summer things because of the rain and we feel sad to see the games, and the good feelings it created, go. Let's hope though that the Olympics has captured the imagination of youngsters to strive to be Olympians of the future. But it's not completely over yet, the Paralypics start on 29th August!

Now the autumn clothes are coming into the shops, Christmas cards creeping onto the shelves (yes already!) and the first leaves are turning, so even if we do get some good weather now it won't last long. Luckily I've got a holiday in Nice to look forward to in a few weeks and I'm counting the days, can't wait to get back to the wine, fab food, baguettes (I love bread LOL!), patisseries, blue sea, relaxing days, roll on......

Zoo TV Memories.....

Just watched the video below, sound not brilliant, oh but what memories it brought back!  Glory days, U2 at it's creative and musical best, fun days, exciting days, mad days, I kind of miss them......

A Breath of Summer!

Cheeky Boy Pepsi!

We've had a lovely couple of summery days, 21 degrees (my perfect temp!), sunshine, gentle breeze. Suddenly people are wearing their bright summer clothes, having barbecues and picnics - we Brits know how to make the most of EVERY (rare this year) good summer's day lol! I was getting morose at seeing autumn clothes appearing in the shops AND Christmas cards!!  Can you believe it Christmas cards in early august ridiculous.

I've been for a lovely walk in Rickerby Park with the boys earlier, we all enjoyed it.  It felt like we'd actually had a summer, nature had that lazy, ripe stillness of a high summer day, basking in the rich fertility of the season, I could almost forget the weeks of rain, almost.  I just love that feel of a mid-summer day, which reminds me I must go looking for brambles soon;

I like walking in this large park, even when it is busy it does not feel crowded. It is almost in the centre of the city flanked on one side by the River Eden, yet it has cattle freely wandering about and grazing, not many places the size of Carlisle can boast that!  I had to laugh as one of the cows decided to wipe her snout on a convenient parked car as I was passing by!

River Eden in Rickerby Park

The boys were the usual child magnet, and I had a couple of little girls come across to see the dogs as I walked along. I think small children relate to small dogs because they always love my boys.

The Cow Beside the Car She Cleaned her Snout on LOL!

I bumped into someone I worked with years ago (Irish Tom, some of you will know him!) and we had a good chat and relished the fact we were retired from the stressful jobs we had.

I really enjoyed having a lovely, long relaxing walk again, something the weather has put the reins on these last few weeks, let's hope I get the chance to do more before the winter sets in.

High Head Twilight Spa

Had a lovely evening at High Head Spa the other night.  I've always love High Head Sculpture Valley. It's situated in a working farm near Ivegill in Cumbria.  There is a tea room that serves fab homemade food, a gallery, shop, a lovely walk in the valley dotted with lovely sculptures made by the farmer who own the site Jonathan stamper. There are also holiday  homes and a spa, set amongst beautiful countryside with a view towards the mountains of the Cumbrian lakes.

This evening my friend Kath, Tania and I went to sample the Twilight Spa at High Head. It is located in a large wooden cabin behind the farm. We arrived at 5pm and after changing and filling in a form went into the room that contained the hot tub and relaxed in it for a while. After that we went outside and lay on the loungers on the decking. Amazingly it was a warm and sunny evening and all we could hear was the birds singing and odd "moo" from cows in the nearby fields.  Kath and Tania went into the sauna situated on the decking while I stayed to soak up the sun, saunas are too hot for me.

At 6pm Kath and I went into the treatment rooms for our pampering, I went for a back massage which was heavenly, so relaxing.  After we came out Tania went in for her treatment whilst Kath and I relaxed on the loungers on the deck again. Swallows were swooping and diving in the blue sky above, this had been the best evening weather-wise for ages, we were so lucky!

After Tania came out from her treatment the staff got our drinks and appetisers ready and we went into the reception area to have them. I thought it would only be a little snack, but we had a plate of salmon and cream cheese, tuna and ham sandwiches, 3 mini kebabs, 3 mini quiches, 3 small pieces each of millionaires shortcake and sponge cake and strawberries. I had a glass of red wine and the others had a whole bottle of buck's fizz between them - which I helped them finish as I was the only one not driving!

The evening was £31 in all which I think was well worth it and I'm sure we'll be doing it again! Full details of what's on a High Head Sculpture Valley can be found at this link: http://highheadsculpturevalley.co.uk/.

Nowhereisland

Heard about this project recently and it appealed to me. I love the way it uses art and nature to bring people together, and I also love the very Britsh quirkiness of the project. I am proud to be a citizen of Nowhereisland! Below is info about Nowhereisland taken from its website.

Nowhereisland is an island from the Arctic on a journey to South West England, arriving during the Olympics held in London.. As it made this epic journey, it travelled through international waters, whereupon it became the world's newest nation with citizenship open to all called Nowhereisland.

Along it's journey it is accompanied by a mobile Embassy, packed full of intriguing objects and fascinating information and hosted by the Nowhereisland Ambassadors.

Nowhereisland is an artwork by Alex Hartley which has caught the imagination of thousands of people across the world.Over 15,000 people from all over the world have already signed up to be citizens, contributing to the online constitution and responding to the year-long Resident Thinkers programme. Also school and organisations along the south coast of England are getting involved.

Along its coastal journey, Nowhereisland will visit eight ports and harbours where it will be hosted by choirs, bands, citizen marches, a flotilla of surfers, gig rowers, sea shanty singers and thousands of people on cliff tops, beaches, harbours and promenades. Find out more about Nowhereisland's journey.

Nowhereisland is a Situations project, one of 12 arts projects across the UK, funded by the Arts Council of England, and is part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad in summer 2012.

Read all about Nowhereisland here